James Edmonds

Ozymandias James Edmonds

Ozymandias is the story of a closed world, one that borrows as much from the Ottoman seraglio as the court of Louis XIV. A world where human justice had no place. At its center is a sultan of modern times, whose refinement of cruelty was matched only by his excess. Hassan II built palaces worthy of the Thousand and One Nights, kept dozens of concubines and lived in incredible luxury. Meanwhile, most of his subjects lived in abject poverty, languishing in makeshift huts in Morocco's swollen cities. A cynical manipulator, Hassan II perpetuated his rule with electoral games, by purchasing consciences, and most of all, with fear. Collective punishment that spared no one. Master of one and all, the king had the power to cast opponents into secret prisons or punish entire cities for any real or perceived slight. In Ozymandias, James Edmonds reveals the toll of his long and tumultuous reign: attempts by his generals to liquidate him, social unrest, disappearances, torture, political trials, and the emigration of thousands. A nation plunged into poverty. A people broken by repression.